Car-connector.



H. A. BOOMER.

CAR CONNECTOR.

APPLICATION FILED IIIAII. 8, 1913.

l, l 59,806. Patented Aug. 17, 1915.

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mii-ED STATES PATENT FFICE.

I-IOBERT A. BOOLVIER, OF INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA.

CAR-CONNECTOR.

,Application filed March 8, 1913.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, Honn'r A. BOOMER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Indianapolis, Marion county, and State of Indiana, have invented and discovered certain new and useful Improvements in Car- Connectors, of which the following is a specification. i

My invention relates to car connectors and its objects are to provide for temporarily coupling a car to the adjacent car of a train when one or both draw bars of the adjoining cars become broken; to provide for etl'ecting such connection without the necessity of the trainman going between the cars and to provide a construction that enables the device to be constructed of light material, whereby the connector may be easily carried by one man from the caboose or wrecking train to the point where it is to be applied.

`With these ends and others in view, my invention is embodied in preferable form in the device hereinafter described and illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

In these drawings, Figure l is a side view in elevation of a connecting device embodying my invention and F ig. 2 a top plan view.

Referring to the drawings the body of the device consists preferably of a section of wire cable 1, which construction is employed because of its great strength relative to its weight, and its comparative stiffness. The ends of this cableY section are doubled back upon the body of the cable so as to form loops 2 and the ends of the cables are secured within clamping collars 8, the ends of the individual wires of the cable being turned back upon themselves, if desired, in order to afford an obstruction against the return of the ends through the collars and Y the space within the collars being also filled with lead which is poured around the collar and the cable, while in a molten condition for thepurpose of affording a further means for securing the ends of the cable.v

A link i is connected to one of theloops and to this link is loosely connected a pronged grapple hook 5. To the loop at the opposite end of the cable is loosely connected a link 6 which is longer and wider than the link 4 and is flared outwardly toward its outer end for the purpose of providing an enlarged portion which is adapted to be utilized to take over the pin ofra draw head, in

Specification of Letters Patent.

`the hook is separated by a considerable Patent-fea aug. iv, i915.

Serial N0. 753,012.

those cases in which one of the draw heads is still intact and in which it is desired or is necessary to effect a direct connection between the disabled car and the draw head of the adjoining car.v This link passes loosely through an eye of a pronged grapple hook 7, similar to the hook 5. These hooks `are provided with acute piercing points 8 and 9 respectively and the pronged portion of space from the shank portion of the hook, thus permitting the `pronged portion of the hook to overlap and extend up to a sufficient, distance from the bottom edge of the sill of a car to afford the hook a firm engagement therewith and also in the case where the connector is used in conjunction with a car having a wooden sill, to permit the piercing point to more readily and freely penetrate the wood. j

This deviceis intended to be constructed of about one-fifth the weight ofthe ordinary heavy chain employed to connect ,the two partsof a train when the same have become broken apart and it is designed to be used only to enable a single disabled car to be attached to that part of Lthe train ahead for the purpose of pulling the car to a place where it can be cut out and repaired.

vWith the use of this device should the Y draw head of one of the cars become broken,

it is merely necessary to carry the connectorto the disabled car and connect one of the hooks to such car and the otherhook to the adjoining car. These hooks are adapted to be engaged directly to the sills of the respective cars. There the cars are provided with wooden sills the piercing points of the hooks are adapted to be forced directly into the wood of the sills.

In order to prevent the rear car from bucking or traveling forward against the front car and thus tending to release the connector, the brakes'are set on therear car so that the latter will be merely dragged along and always maintained at proper distance from the front car to keep the connector taut. By means of the wire cable body it will be seen that not only may the hooks be much more readily engaged with the sillsbut that there is less tendency for the body to sag down in the middle and permit the withdrawal of the hooks than if chains were employed. l/Vhere metal sills are used, the same are usually of L-shape or I-beam ,construction .and the hooks are inV such cases merely engaged over the lowerV inner flanges thereof..

Should the pin of one of the draw-heads be intact and for any reason should it be desired to connect the disabled car directly to the draw bar of the car ahead, the link 6 may be utilized for this purpose and may be placed over the pin of the draw-head and the hook at the other end used to engage the sill of the disabled car.

Owing to the provision of a grappling hookl at each end of the connector it is rendered possible to positively engage the device with'the structures ofthe cars to be connected adjacent the sides of the latter without the trainnien being obliged to go between the cars to effect the connection as is required with other devices employedto l claim is: f

effect this temporary coupling.V y

Having thus described my inventionwhat l. A temporary connecting device for use in connecting a detached car with a broken coupling member to a train, comprising a cable composed of continuous metal strands and having'a grapple hook connected by a,

linkto each end thereof,y eachv of said grappleho'oks'being formed with piercing points and with the point widely separated from the shank thereof, whereby a devicefor thev oopiers'fpf this patent may be obtained for pur-pose is provided wherein the cable member is of suflicient rigidity to serve as a handle and wherein the grapple hook points through said links and doubling them back n K upon the body of the cable and securing said endl rigidly to said body, grapple hooks con-V nected with said links each formed to engage the'` frame-work of the carat points widely removed from the edges of theframe l.V

pieces, one of vsaid links having an opening Y of sufficientsize to take over a draw-head pin, all as substantially set forth.

n witness whereof, l Yhave hereunto set`V my hand and seal at indianapolis, Indiana, this first day of March, l).v nineteen hundred and thirteen. y K HUBERT A. BOOMER. [11. s]

"Witnesses:

H. P. DooLrr'rLE, A. C. RICE.

ve cents each, by addressing the F Commissioner of` laten'cs.V

WashingtomD. C. K 

